24 February 2014

The thing about being creative, especially on the internet, is that once you put an idea out into the world, it grows in ways you may not have conceived or dreamed. I mean, the #365FeministSelfie project grew from the #FeministSelfie hashtag, as well as the countless posts about selfies being empowering.

A few selfie projects have come to my attention over the past month, including one inspired by #365FeministSelfie:

Katia wrote to tell me that this project was being applied to the glut of red carpet conversations about designers. She called it "Who Are You Wearing?" and asked moms to respond. And thanks to her project, #365FeministSelfie made it to Redbook!

Mensen is taking a really different direction on the selfie path. Hand drawn selfies! It grew out of her experiences with online dating.

And of course the Today Show is jumping on the empowered selfie train with their #LoveYourSelfie series this week. They are connecting the series to "a new TODAY/AOL Ideal to Real Body Image Survey, to be released [today], [showing that] 67 percent of adult women worry about their appearance regularly—more often than finances, health, relationships or professional success." Just ugh. I guess I feel like I worry more about bills and my career than what I look like.

Although I will admit that my appearance is a top 5 daily worry. I know in college I pretty much gave up trying to look "nice." I was living with my boyfriend, who is now my husband, and super focused on classes and my research. Then when I got my first real job after graduation, I started to worry about what I wore at work. What could be fun enough for a 24-year-old, but professional enough to be taken seriously? I feel like I'm back at a similar moment. Still working at a college campus, still look fairly young, but 40 is around the corner! Which is why I love curvy fashion blogs!

Still, I wonder what else we can do to help us realize that a lot of who we feel about ourselves is a good amount of attitude? And how to get that attitude with and without that perfect pair of jeans, high heels or lipstick?

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comments:

Thank you so much for the mention, Veronica. I completely agree with your opening statement. It's so gratifying seeing an idea YOU came up with separate itself from you and become something much bigger. Kudos for the initiative!